The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by Renate

Eh, I don't think we have to get judgemental.

Asking Jon not to be judgemental is like asking the sun not to shine.

[issybird]

Let's avoid the personal, please. Restrict comments to posts and not the posters. Thanks.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by hildea

You might like Proper English by KJ Charles. Early 1900s, a house party where one of the guests is found murdered, and two of the guests falling in love while sleuthing. It's mainly a romance, but the crime mystery is also good.

I might. However I was referring to the Romance novel that's structured like a cosy detective, not one with a detective mystery, thus:
The protagonist has a HEA with one of the characters, who must be introduced at the start (The perpetrator needs introduced at the start, not last chapter), but you don't know at least in 1st chapter who it might be.
Not clear at the start who are friends or enemies (c.f. allies & criminals).
Loads of believable red herrings, other possible love interests (other suspects).
Clues that the reader spots and other clues the narrator sneakily keeps secret (Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and for Romance, the unreliable narrator, one of the Brontë novels).

Thusly more complex than simply couple meet and the plot is only how they get the HEA (see most romcom films: The Shop Around the Corner, Youve got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, One Fine Day, While you were Sleeping etc, though some of those have more complexity, but obvious enough).
Some of the Mary Burchill books have pretty complex plots, and some have good "red herrings".

[ownedbycats]

I swear all my Overdrive holds all pop up at the same time.

[hildea]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I might. However I was referring to the Romance novel that's structured like a cosy detective, not one with a detective mystery, thus:
The protagonist has a HEA with one of the characters, who must be introduced at the start (The perpetrator needs introduced at the start, not last chapter), but you don't know at least in 1st chapter who it might be.
...
Some of the Mary Burchill books have pretty complex plots, and some have good "red herrings".

Sounds intriguing. I don't think I've read any books like that, the closest I've seen are book with love triangles. Can you recommend a good book with this structure, by Burchill or someone else?

[Quoth]

From Mary Burchell and some were on offer at Amazon

Somewhat in "A Song Begins" (Warrender Saga 1), but others are more complex.

I read the first and thought and said to the Lady, "How can you make an HEA into a series?"
Well, you can. But I won't explain. After the 2nd one I quickly bought 20 more!

"On the Air" (obviously set in 1950s BBC, and it was still a bit like that in 1970s when I worked there, very realistic). Burchell Romance [5]

Nightingales (Warrender Saga 11)
On Wings of Song (Warrender Saga 13)

She also has characters from a book do cameos in other books
"Under the Stars of Paris" (Florian 1)
"Paris - and My Love" (Florian 2) is a sequel but a different set of characters in same setting (maybe 10 years later?) having a romance.

"On the Air" is obviously between Florian 1 & 2 and unconnected, except the dress designer is interviews on the "National TV Station" (BBC is never mentioned).

Make sure you are charged, fed and will have no interruptions.

A few have somewhat unlikely plots. "When Love is Blind", OTOH I might have read a Regency setting (either Joan Aiken or Georgette Heyer) with a similar idea, and plenty books from both of those and Mary Stewart are a bit mad. Some of Aiken's Regency novels are as dark as some of her darker Crime novels. She certainly didn't just write for young people. (Wolves/JamesIII and others). Not many people know she was nearly as expert on Regency as Heyer expert on Jane Austin.

There are of course plenty of combined actual detective/mystery & romance set in Regency to 1930s and some are contemporary, or nearly so to the period (Wilkie Collins).

[ownedbycats]

A few years ago, I picked up a series starter on Kobo. I just read it and enjoyed it enough to look into the rest of the series, only to find the author had since went exclusive with KDP Select.

Since I boycott Kindle, guess I won't be reading any more.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

A few years ago, I picked up a series starter on Kobo. I just read it and enjoyed it enough to look into the rest of the series, only to find the author had since went exclusive with KDP Select.

Since I boycott Kindle, guess I won't be reading any more.

That does suck when an author screws over the readers. #

Who is this author so I make sure never to read his/her books?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That does suck when an author screws over the readers. #

Who is this author so I make sure never to read his/her books?

I don't blame the author so much - they have to eat too. I blame KDP Select program and that anti-competitive exclusivity clause.

This was the book. The book itself was pretty silly and definitely not fine literature, but honestly kind of fun to read

[paperwhite13]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That does suck when an author screws over the readers. #

Who is this author so I make sure never to read his/her books?

So big authors that can afford to publish on all platforms (and make Amazon a lot more money in the process) are ok, while small authors that go exclusive are viewed as greedy? corrupt? and boycotted Nice.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

This was the book. The book itself was pretty silly and definitely not fine literature, but honestly kind of fun to read

I can see how that could be a fun read. But to jump ship and screw the readers, that is a huge no way.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by paperwhite13

So big authors that can afford to publish on all platforms (and make Amazon a lot more money in the process) are ok, while small authors that go exclusive are viewed as greedy? corrupt? and boycotted Nice.

If you own a Kobo and you don't have a Kindle, you don't have any way to download it and put it on your Kobo.

Any author that's exclusive to Amazon is meh!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That does suck when an author screws over the readers. #

Who is this author so I make sure never to read his/her books?

The author has every right to do whatever they want with their books. If they earn more in KDP Select, who are you to tell them they should be content with less?

It's not like their books aren't available. They're available at Amazon and can even be deDRMed. If someone decides not to buy from Amazon just on principle, why should that concern others, including the author?

[paperwhite13]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you own a Kobo and you don't have a Kindle, you don't have any way to download it and put it on your Kobo.

Any author that's exclusive to Amazon is meh!

Yes, but what you're proposing is to avoid those author's books that *can* be downloaded to your Kobo

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you own a Kobo and you don't have a Kindle, you don't have any way to download it and put it on your Kobo.

Yes, you do. The Kindle for PC method and the Kindle for Android method.